Early Garden

Soaker hoses are great garden irrigation tools and are indispensable when used under black plastic mulch. Here are some observations I gathered over a couple seasons that I am using to revise my original garden soaker hose watering tips.

If you have a garden with clay soil you are going to have a hard time planting early because the soil stays wet so long. Here are some tips to reduce compaction all year long and amend your clay soil so you can get started earlier in the spring.

On the surface black plastic mulch and underground soaker hose irrigation seem to be the perfect pair when dealing with the demands of pepper plants. But peppers are highly demanding in both temperature and water requirements and our two garden aides can create as many problems as they solve.

Kozy Coats are a good season extender for plants like tomatoes, but just how durable are they?

One of my favorite yearly traditions is the arrival of the garden seed mail order catalogs in winter. After enjoying looking at the pictures for a few weeks it becomes time to get down to business and start selecting seeds for the growing season. But how do you choose? Here’s some tips.

Outside in the cold and snow two recent observations helped me remember the importance of heat storage in the garden and gave me a big idea to improve the milk jug solution.

The leaves are turning yellow, then brown, then drying and falling off. Is it a disease? Is it the weather? Is it my watering habits? Is it the variety? Is it in my soil? I’ve got an early garden tip for next spring that may finally help solve your tomato problems.

I couldn’t live without soaker hose irrigation under black plastic mulch for crops like peppers and melons. I even use soaker hoses on open ground for my tomatoes and flowers because they make watering so easy. Having used these for nearly as long as I’ve been gardening I’ve gathered together some tips to make your experience with soaker hoses a little nicer.

For the most part we use season extenders to help get our garden out early while it is still somewhat cold outside, but there is another legitimate use - plant protection. That is, protecting plants that you just can’t stand to lose to conditions like cold, wind or hail.

Last year I started my own tomato transplant indoors under fluorescent lights but for the first time they were long, leggy, weak and suffered transplant shock. This year I adjusted the light intensity, watering frequency, temperature and simulated the wind in a perfect mix to get tomato transplants that were already hardy before going outside.